Mending Friendships Under Fireworks
by Hotspur101
Summary: Kimiko and Raimundo spend time alone under fireworks on Independence Day in America. Take it from there... Raikim


Revised!

Hotspur101

**Disclaimer: Read sentimentalvalue's "Fireworks". Way better than this, I'll bet... :D My point is I don't own anything!**

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It had been only a few days after Raimundo had returned from the Heylin side. 

Still, Kimiko refused to trust him fully.

Especially because of that wound she got on her arm from when he had attacked her...

Kimiko sighed as she sat, cross-legged, on her bed. Her hand reached unconciously up to her arm to rub the sour pain the bruise that Raimundo landed on her arm left. She winced as the pain shot further up her arm into her chest. Could it be infected?

Nah, it was a bruise.

Kimiko sighed again.

She had been avoiding Raimundo for the past few days. She'd switched places with Clay on the meditation mat, with Omi while riding on Dojo, with Clay during practice/training, with Omi for seating arrangements at the supper table. Also, to hide the wound from Raimundo, she replaced her armbands with black elbow gloves. Every night she'd rub ointment onto the wound before going to sleep. The wound was fading now. She wouldn't be using the ointment for much longer...

Kimiko was sure that Raimundo noticed her strange behavior. Whenever Raimundo asked her something or talked to her, she ither shrugged her shoulders, replied with an one-word answer or just plain didn't do anything. Whenever he moved closer to her, she'd move away. Whenever the duo was walking around together, looking for Shen Gong Wu, Kimiko lagged as far as she could behind.

Kimiko was even considering switching sleeping headquarters with Omi, who slept at the end of the small hallway. Besides, he had a better view of the sunset and the starry sky...

Kimiko threw a pillow up into the air and punched it. Hard. Feathers flew out from between the loose seams as Kimiko did this over again and again. She wanted desperately to let out her anger on the metal walls, but then she'd wake everyone. Eyes blazing, she began to beat up her mattress.

Sighing, Kimiko lay down again on her beat-up sleeping material.

Why was she so angry?

She turned over and closed her sad blue eyes.

Because she knew she couldn't trust Raimundo again.

Maybe she could relax in America on the trip Clay was planning for tomorrow...

Raimundo had been watching all this from her doorway silently.

He watched her as she stared accusingly out into the starry sky.

He watched her as she beat up her sleeping material while looking longingly at her metal walls.

Most of all, he was watching her right arm.

No wonder she had been wearing gloves.

She had a bruise.

But...why did she want to hide it?

Raimundo turned from the doorway and pressed his back against the door frame, breathing hard and looking at nothing in particular. Was it he who had inflicted the wound?

Then Raimundo remembered. It all came flooding back. Raimundo's wide smirk. Kimiko's up-held hands, ready to fire with her element. Raimundo waiting. Kimiko retreating. Raimundo charging. Kimiko's fear. Raimundo's flying fist. Kimiko's cry...

So, it had been he who had inflicted the wound, huh.

Raimundo felt a tear roll down his cheek.

So that was why Kimiko was avoiding him. That was why she was staying as far from him as she could at the dinner table, on the meditation mat, during training. That was why she barely even looked at him with any emotion at all; other than poorly-hidden fear.

He had traumatized her.

Oh no, Raimundo had figured this out a long time ago. He wasn't dumb. He'd even asked Master Fung for help. Master Fung simply said "Trust can take weeks, months, even years to mend. But it can be destroyed in one moment." and walked away, leaving Raimundo more broken than before.

But now it hit him.

Hard.

He had been a traitor. Betrayer. A friend who turned away from his life because of jealousy.

Kimiko must hate him. A lot.

Raimundo swiped at the tear and walked back to his room, shuffling his feet as he went.

Raimundo stopped suddenly.

Hey...wasn't tomorrow that holiday Clay was so excited about? Something called...Independence Day? Where there were corn dogs and cotton candy and ice cream cones and watermelon and parades and celebrations and and and then...

At the end of the day...

Fireworks?

Clay had described them as " flyin' bombs like flyin' fish shootin' inta th' air with their tails on fire, then explodin' inta smaller bits o' embers which lader on fade into the skah like ghosts afeared o' somethin' comin' their way..."

Omi had been listening with huge, innocent eyes. "Ooh, I would like to see these flying fish with tails of fire and ghosts fading into the sky!"

Kimiko, Raimundo and Clay had slapped their hands to their foreheads then.

"What?"

Anyway, Raimundo figured that if he and Kimiko could spend some time alone under those flying fish with tails of fire and fading ghosts, maybe he could make up to her.

Maybe even tell her about how he really felt about her...

He'd have to talk to Clay about making a distraction.

Raimundo danced on tip-toes back to his room.

Who's the genius now, Jack?

The next morning, Kimiko got up early to pick out what to dress in. She picked a pair of dark blue jeans, a pair of black boots and a red t-shirt over a white long-sleeved shirt. Deciding to ditch her usual hairstyle, she put on a blue elastic head-band and , combing her long black hair, put a blue scrunchie on her right wrist in case it was hot in America. Which it probably was, considering it was summer there...

Raimundo woke up to the sounds of rustling of clothing in Kimiko's room. Deciding maybe he could catch her in the hallways, he jumped out of bed and put on a pair of tan jeans, black sneakers, a white t-shirt hoodie with a green hood and an orange wristband on either wrist. Raking his unruly brown locks back with his fingers, he walked out of the door, only to find that Kimiko had already gone. Sighing, he went down to the kitchen to prepare breakfast, shuffling his feet like last night.

Later on, Clay woke up as well. He pulled on his usual outfit and, slamming his brown cowboy hat to his head,hustled down to the kitchen as well.

Omi was last. He woke up, yawned, and looked at the clothing that Kimiko had shrunken from Clay's closet with the Changing Chopsticks. He did not want to give up his pride as a Dragon by wearing foreign clothes, but did not want to be laughed at in the foreign lan, so he sighed and put onwhat Kimiko had hung up for him.

When everyone was at the table, everyone was strangely quiet. Kimiko was trying to hide her bruise and avoid Raimundo's gaze. Raimundo was staring at Kimiko. Clay was stuffing his face from excitement, and Omi...well, he decided that he did not want to be the one to break the tension in the room.

When everyone was done, Dojo went outside and transformed to his much larger self. Raimundo pulled Clay aside.

"Clay, I need to ask a favor of you."

"What's up, pardner?"

"Well, you see..." Raimundo looked down. "Ever since I came back from being on the Heylin side, Kimiko's been acting like she's...afraid of me. She's doing everything she can to avoid contact with me. I was thinking that, maybe, right before the fireworks start, you can make a distraction so that Kimiko and I can talk privately..."

Clay smiled. "No problem, pardner. Anything to help ah friend in trouble."

Raimundo looked back up. "Really? You'll do it for me?"

Clay nodded, slapping his friend hard on the back. "Just treat the lil' lady right, okay? She's the only girl 'round here, y'know."

Raimundo smiled. "Thanks man, I owe you one."

"No prob."

After the long trip across the ocean, everyone leapt down hastily from Dojo (Who couldn't notice a legendary monster in full size?) and Dojo returned to his normal size, curling with a dragon sigh under Clay's hat. Kimiko barely even glanced at Raimundo as he helped her off.

Raimundo noticed and winced sharply.

"So..." Kimiko said, toying with a tiny wisp of fire so that no one could see.

"What do we do first?"

Clay smiled. "Well, there should be some parades goin' on downtown..."

Everyone marched on.

Kimiko lagged behind, as usual. Looking up at the duo of boys ahead of her, she sighed. They were missing someone... maybe it was her?

Kimiko sighed again. She'd been doing that a lot lately...

Later on, that night, after cheering themselves hoarse in parades and stuffing themselves sick on junk food (especially Omi, who had never seen an ice cream cone before), the duo of boys and girl wandered ditzily along, laughing and talking, into the quiet countryside. Kimiko pointed out a huge field where people were beginning to scatter with their beach chairs and home-made blankets to wait for the fireworks, slapping at mosquitos every once in a while. The Xiaolin monks climbed nimbly up into trees and settled down between slender, sturdy branches.

Kimiko waited a bit before picking out her tree to gaze at the American landscape.

It was simply beautiful.

There were green slopes of weedless grass and wild flowers dotted and scattered. Every one of the scattered trees were strong, slender and had slim branches full of leaves. All this was topped off with the purplish-pink clouds, the red and gold sunset and the velvety-blue sky. Kimiko wandered ditzily to a tree and swung herself up to one of the higher branches, where she had a perfect view of the landscape. Leaning back on her arms, she sighed dreamily, her eyes half closed.

Suddenly, something landed swiftly and lightly beside her out of nowhere.

Kimiko sat up, eyes popping open and looking to the direction of the uninvited newcomer.

"Oh," she said, uncertain of what else to say and looked straight forward again.

It was Raimundo.

Raimundo got right to the point.

"Kimiko."

"I noticed that you've been ignoring me lately, and I figured it's because of my going to the Heylin side. I hope I didn't do anything bad to you...other than that bruise I gave to you in our Xiaolin Showdown..." He looked over at Kimiko, who now decided to finally look at him. "So, I just dropped by to say I'm sorry. I understand completely if you don't want to talk to me ever again, being the only girl in our temple..." He turned solemnly to his tree, but Kimiko grabbed his arm.

"Wait!"

Raimundo looked back, the blank look still plastered to his Brazillean features.

Kimiko blushed and let go of his arm. "I-I forgive you."

Raimundo settled back down on the branch he was sitting on before. "Really?"

Kimiko nodded.

"Oh, I don't know...it usually takes a lot longer to get you to forgive me on other things..." Raimundo smirked.

Kimiko looked away, into the richly woven pattern of branches and leaves she was currently sitting on. "That's because I wanted to forgive you."

She looked back at the now-confused Raimundo.

"I wasn't exactly mad at you. I was just...kinda scared of you, I guess." Kimiko fidgeted with her scrunchie on her wrist. "Avoiding you made me feel sick. It really did! I missed the times when I could hang out with the three closest boys in my life like I wasn't suspecting them of coming up with something or being a traitor. But after you...you know, I kinda lost that courage." Kimiko looked to the skies as if begging the fireworks to start. "I wanted so much to trust you-ALL of you-again, but I didn't know whether I should or not anymore."

Kimiko's blue eyes started to water. She looked away.

Raimundo gazed at the heart-broken girl before him and pulled her into his lap, holding her tenderly to his chest. He gently wiped away the tears that were beginning to leak from her eyes.

"That's the kindest thing anyone's ever said to me."

Kimiko looked up. "Really? How?"

This time, Raimundo looked pleadingly into the skies. "Let's just say, before I decided to become a Dragon...my life had been...lonely...?"

Kimiko's eyes widened. "Oh. I...I'm sorry."

"Don't be." Raimundo turned away. "None of it is your fault."

Awkward silence.

**_Boom._**

Kimiko's and Raimundo's gazes turned in unison to the skies. Just in time to see a shower of gold sparkles run down the skies. Like fish with their tails on fire. Then, the embers vanished. Like startled ghosts.

Suddenly, a tiny voice, Raimundo and Kimiko recognized as Omi's, rang up from a distance behind them.

"I must use the restroom headquarters! Oh, and I am _most_ hungry, too!"

Then, Clay's voice. "Aww man, not now?"

Raimundo smiled at each other, then laughed.

After a long time of laughing, Raimundo, with his arms around Kimiko's slim waist, fall back onto the highest branches of the tree. Kimiko, with a little cry of surprise, followed. As she fell back, her lips brushed against Raimundo's. The two stopped in mid-movement, staring at each other. Both of their cheeks colored pink. Then, Raimundo leaned in for more, pressing his parched lips against her soft ones. After what seemed like a lifetime, Kimiko broke away for air, propped herself up on her arms and sighed, finally directing her gaze to the fireworks.

"Awesome," she breathed.

"Yeah..." Raimundo smiled. He sat back up, pulling Kimiko into his lap once more.

Sighing, he rested his chin on her shoulder.

Today had been the best day of his life. He had celebrated Independence Day in America and had a blast. He had earned back Kimiko's trust, and he had gotten his first kiss.

On the trip home, Kimiko sat in front of Raimundo once more.

A/N: Revised version done! 'sighs'


End file.
